The Paris Agreement aims to keep a global average temperature well below 2°C and as close to 1.5C as possible above pre-industrial levels, based on country-led commitments for global action. Also, starting no later than 2024, as part of the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF), all countries who have ratified the Paris Agreement will follow a single, universal transparency reporting process. Under ETF, countries will report transparently on actions taken and progress in climate change mitigation, adaptation measures, and support provided or received. It also provides for international procedures for the review of the submitted reports. As a Party to the UNFCCC, Bangladesh is obliged to develop national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory, prepare an environmental database, and report adaptation, mitigation, and climate finance with transparent and verifiable data. Since 2002, the Department of Environment (DoE) has been compiling sectoral GHG emission, adaptation and mitigation information on behalf of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) for the reporting and analysis as a part of national communications submitted to the UNFCCC. Due to limited human and financial resources and the absence of proper institutional arrangement for data sharing, the aforesaid data compilation, analysis and reporting activities performed by DoE are not regular which in turn makes the report preparation and submission process difficult.

According to Decision 18/CMA.1, each Party should implement and maintain national inventory arrangements, including institutional, legal, and procedural arrangements which are pre-requisite for the continued estimation, compilation and timely reporting of national inventory reports. The Parties are also required to report on the institutional arrangements for GHG Inventory following the modalities, procedures and guidelines (MPGs) under the Enhanced Transparency Framework of the Paris Agreement. However, it is also recognized in the MPGs that national inventory arrangements can vary by Party depending on their national circumstances and preferences, and can change over time (UNFCCC, 2019).

Strengthening institutional arrangements is the primary requirement for collecting, archiving and organizing data for use in the GHG inventory. As the GHG inventory preparation in Bangladesh is project based, institutional arrangements and coordination are mostly irregular and the awareness about national GHG inventory related activities among the stakeholder groups is in inadequate. Formal institutional arrangements with legal mandates and clear definition of roles of each institution and stakeholder in GHG inventory preparation process are needed to institutionalize the GHG inventory preparation and reporting process.  

In addition, Institutional arrangements are an integral part of the successful implementation of any NDC. According to Decision 18/CMA.1 on the modalities, procedures and guidelines (MPGs) for the ETF of the Paris Agreement, each Party shall provide information on the legal, institutional, administrative and procedural arrangements in place to track progress made in implementing and achieving its NDC under Article 4, including those used for tracking internationally transferred mitigation outcomes, if applicable, along with any changes in institutional arrangements since its most recent BTR (UNFCCC, 2019). To compile past, present and future GHG emission, mitigation and adaptation action data in a more cost-efficient, transparent, systematic and sustainable manner an effective and long-term institutional arrangement is deserved for regular data collection, sharing and archiving in Bangladesh. 

Figure: Information on institutional arrangements to be provided in BTR and other reports